How to Choose & Future Proof your Tech Stack: A Guide for Start-up MGAs

This content is an excerpt from Digital Evolution: How MGAs and MGUs are Embracing Innovation, an interview featuring Insillion CEO Raja Raman, hosted by TMPAA Executive Director Gene Abbey as part of the Target Topics InfoSeries — a thought leadership series where industry leaders offer insights on dealing with pressing issues faced by the Program Business space.

Whether you’re an aspiring MGA or a well-established one, it’s easy for tech innovation to take a backseat unless it’s a core offering of yours. However, the right technology choices have a tangible impact across every part of your operations, be it speed, scalability or overall customer experience.  

With so many tools offering similar benefits, it’s hard to know what actually tips the scale. In response, this conversation offers an informed view on where insurance technology is headed, and what strategic priorities MGAs should focus on to stay future-ready.  

The Start-up MGA Tech Stack: Key Factors to Consider When Choosing Yours

New MGAs need technology that not only supports their current operations but also scales efficiently with them three years down the line. When chosen without foresight, technology can hold back innovation and limit growth in markets with evolving demands. 

That doesn’t mean MGAs will inevitably hit a wall in a few years, or that they need to spend months setting up complex systems before launching. It just means that the technology they choose should be able to grow with their business and effectively handle future data volumes, processing, and storage needs. 

New MGAs typically can’t afford large-scale systems like Guidewire or full IT teams to maintain them. As a result, they either spend too much time building infrastructure themselves, or settle for tools that don’t quite fit—leading to subpar automation and data systems. 

Recognizing this challenge, Insillion offers carrier-grade PAS solutions thoughtfully restructured to meet MGAs’ unique needs. With a flexible, pay-as-you-grow model, our platform is designed to scale with you. 

Preparing for the AI-Driven MGA: What You Should Be Doing

AI, especially agentic AI, is set to fundamentally redefine how we access and implement solutions. We will no longer need large teams of developers to define and automate processes. Instead, AI will be able to handle these tasks in a much more linear and seamless manner.

For example, underwriting ops can be almost fully automated, with a human-in-loop stepping in if designated or when triggered, signaling a potential issue. MGAs will not need to manually handle end-to-end submissions anymore. 

Today, P&C underwriters are already benefitting greatly from AI’s deep research capabilities. Lengthy reports can be converted into easily digestible summaries, helping underwriters assess risks faster. AI also has the potential to transform risk profiling and the generation of risk scores. The insurance industry hasn’t widely adopted AI in risk profiling just yet because AI isn’t as deterministic and reliable as we’d like it to be for risk evaluations. 

As for the question of adoption, there’s only one answer: Adapt or be left behind. AI is impacting every industry including insurance, so the real question is how you choose to bring it into your business — gradually integrating it component by component, or by evolving into an AI-driven organization as a whole. AI and agentic systems aren’t where we want them to be today. But when they are, MGA systems need to be ready to integrate AI wherever it can to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. 

Agentic APIs: The Future of Plug-and-Play Integration 

APIs have continuously taken different forms over the years — from application APIs to HTTP based, JSON-based, and SOAP-based interfaces. The next evolution, I believe, is the agentic form of APIs. 

By definition, APIs are electronic interfaces, with a front end that, in the future, will increasingly interact with agentic AI. Developers traditionally study API documentation and manually figure out what sequence to call. This method will be gradually phased out with Agentic AI, which can automatically understand how to integrate APIs when provided with a well-defined documentation. A distribution partner with a similar Agentic AI built into their system can automatically integrate and consume your services without any manual configuration on your end. 

While the form that APIs take may evolve, the concept remains a constant. Therefore, when evaluating any technology, make sure to assess how well-defined its built-in API offering is. A solid API foundation is key to future-proofing your MGA’s systems. 

What It Takes to Build a Tech-First MGA  

1. Treat technology as a core part of your MGA’s business, not something that sits around it.

Make technology part of every aspect of your business plan, from customer engagement/interfacing to carrier integration. When you treat technology as something that drives your business instead of an afterthought, it can significantly enhance and differentiate your business from competitors.  

If you have trouble visualizing exactly how technology can make every aspect of your business smoother, talk to tech partners like Insillion — We're here to make that clearer. 

2. It doesn’t have to be Build or Buy: It can be both.

MGAs might assume that building is expensive and that buying is the only cost-effective option. Over time however, the ownership costs of building run long and the technology can also become limiting as you grow. 

Therefore, it’s smart to clearly outline which components are worth building, and which ones are better bought. Over time, you can even replace the built technology with more scalable, off-the-shelf solutions. Whenever standard components are available, buying over building often saves time, effort and maintenance issues over the years. 

Conclusion

With Tech and AI growing in leaps and bounds, steady and intentional adoption is key to building a competitive, lean business. A flexible, scalable tech foundation that aligns with your long-term goals enables your MGAs to not just adopt with ease, but lead confidently in evolving markets.